John Kowalski

17 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

John, in fairness to Mr. Metta, I think it should noted that he does proffer the whole Hemming, Trujillo episode as his background to a plot to kill Kennedy.  And Metta does trace some ties in funding a plot to  CMC. (pp. 49-51)  William Turner previously talked about the funds that Banister sent to Permindex for an attack on DeGaulle through Maurice Gatlin.

And Metta does place some ties between what Hemming called a French team, and the OAS and Soutre. And the Houma raid that Banister, Ferrie and Novel were part of and that Garrison talks about in his book, that was a tie in between the CIA and the OAS. (Garrison, p. 40)

Should also add that Nagy had a home in Dallas at the time, and Shaw was in New Orleans.

Whether or not one agrees with this, or buys Hemming, that is another matter.  But they are in the book.

I think Metta's book is quite interesting.  I wish it was better written and organized, and it really does need an index, but its really a fascinating read for the wide web of international intrigue that he draws. 

 

 

Jim: my problem with Metta's book is that while he does show that there are many connections between this company and the far right he does not provide details as to how it carried out the plots he alleges it to be involved in. An example is the funding of the assassination, he did not show how Permindex transferred funds to the assassins.

We will have to agree to disagree about Permindex's and CMC's role in Kennedy's assassination or other terrorist events.

I agree that there was a cover-up about Shaw. He was a CIA asset and he was seen in Clinton with Oswald and Ferrie. However, there is nothing in the work that Shaw did with Permindex/CMC that directly connects him to Oswald. When he was acting as a CIA asset on CMC's board of directors, he was doing work for the CIA that most likely had to do with containing leftist aspiration in Italy and had nothing to with Oswald. Later on, when he was seen in Clinton with Oswald and Ferrie, he was again acting as a CIA asset, and this time he is connected to Oswald. Doing research on Permindex/CMC and reading Metta's book will not provide any new insights into Shaw's connection to Oswald.

13 hours ago, Rob Couteau said:

How does the whole Permindex angle alter or deepen or clarify the Oswald-Shaw relationship?

 

 

Rob:

Permindex / CMC does nothing to clarify the Shaw - Oswald relationship. The only thing that it does do is confirm that Shaw was a CIA asset and that he was doing work other than being a domestic informant reporting to the CIA on things he observed while traveling to foreign countries.  It also confirms that Shaw was working for a company that had connections to people in Italy who were far right and violent,  and who probably would have supported Kennedy's assassination. But there is no direct connection between Oswald and Permindex / CMC and Shaw's later involvement with Oswald in Clinton has no direct connection to his work for Permindex / CMC.

3 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Pro Per means you represent yourself, no counsel.

That I did, represented myself. Maurice Phillips did the same.

One of the files released by Barbour includes a lead written by a man who lived in Ottawa and who said that Shaw lived at the Lord Elgin Hotel in Ottawa in 1952-1953. Has anyone ever done research on where Shaw was living during this time period?

11 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

How many hearings have you had on this John?

This was all done as they say in the USA  pro per right? 

Have had 2 hearings so far, the March one will be the third and hopefully the last one.

Don't know what pro per right means.

The term used for the hearings is "case management." Court officers recommended this to me as a way to expedite the process.

4 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

BTW, in addition to John and Mr. Metta, I think we should also give Maurice Phillips some credit for this new and detailed information about Permindex/CMC.

Maurice was the first guy who actually explored the Canadian Archives for the Bloomfield correspondence. 

https://somesecretsforyou.blogspot.com

Maurice does deserve credit for the work he did. He took the archives to court twice and he forced them to open the files for public review. I spent a lot of time reviewing his court files and in them I found evidence that helped me win my case.

My next court date is March 11. Will have a teleconference with a judge, archive lawyers and the Quebec Law Society. This conference should be the last one and in it we will discuss the closing of the case. 

12 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

John - isn’t there a Tibor Rosenbaum letter that is still withheld? 

Yes there is a letter to Rosenbaum that is withheld but being withheld does not mean that there is something significant in that letter.  If Bloomfield and Rosenbaum were involved in something that was either illegal or intelligence related, I do not believe that he would have put it in a letter and then donate that letter to the archives. 

I also want to mention that I have no suspicions about the withheld documents. The archives allege that they are all subject to solicitor-client privilege (SCP) but I doubt that they are. I have read and have copies of letters written by Bloomfield to some of the people on the list of withheld documents. In these letters he is not providing legal advice. There is one person on the list whose name is Mr. PJ de Dongo. He is Bloomfield's employee, who he sent to Rome to help him with his work he was doing on behalf of his CMC clients. As he was an employee and not a client, Bloomfield would not be providing him with legal advice therefore his letter to him should not be subject to SCP, but it is. What they probably did is choose some random letters and designated them as SCP. Why they held them back I don't know but speculate that they want to save face by saying that yes, some were subject to SCP rather than admit that they were wrong about all of them or admit that they had an ulterior motive for withholding them.

Yes there is a connection to Tibor Rosenbaum but the name of the bank is International Credit Bank. The English name on the letter below from Bloomfield to Rosenbaum is very similar to the French Banco Commerciale Internationale.  I don't recall Metta entioning that bank or Rosenbaum, and I can't confirm this because the book has no index.

There is probably a connection to the Mossad because Georges Mandel used to be connected to the Israeli Intelligence Service (ILS) which I assume had some connection to the Mossad. Mandel was separated from the ILS but given that he, Shaw and Nagy all have intelligence connections, Permindex and CMC were probably involved in intelligence work.  

Hi Paul:

Glad you liked my review.

The archives didn't specifically hold back documents from 1963, they held back those documents they deemed to be subject to solicitor-client privilege.

I think that the Mossad connection to CMC is weak. Metta's book mentions only one person who had been with them as been connected to CMC.  This does not necessarily mean that there are no other connections between the Mossad and CMC, it it means that more research is required to see if there are other Mossad or Israeli connections to CMC.

Have no idea who Bloomfield was representing. I spoke to Harry Bloomfield, who is Louis Bloomfield's nephew and who is mentioned in Bloomfield's letter to I.G. Alk in 1979 in exhibit 1 about this. He told me he does not know who he was representing.

Bloomfield knew the Bronfmans but I do not know if he acted as their counsel.

Anthony:

Thank you. Looking forward to comments or questions about my review.

I have written a book review about Metta's book about CMC. In the appendices there is a discussion about the three lawsuits brought against the archives to get Bloomfield's documents released and Bloomfield's true role in Permindex and CMC.

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-reviews/the-canadian-archives-michele-metta-and-the-latest-on-permindex

Not sure who he is but he must have some connection to the company he is discussing Permindex issues with him.

On 11/1/2005 at 9:50 AM, John Simkin said:

William Torbitt is the pseudonymous author of Nomenclature of an Assassination Cabal (1970). When the book was published the author claimed he was a lawyer working in the southwestern part of the United States.

During the Second World War he served in the United States Navy. After completing a law degree from the University of Texas he worked as a prosecuting attorney (1949-51). He admits that his clients includes people involved in committing political murder. He claims he has also represented people involved in the "financial dealings of organized crime in Texas".

In Nomenclature of an Assassination Cabal Torbitt claims that John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a "fascist cabal... who planned to lay the blame on honest right-wing conservatives, if their first ploy, to lay the blame on Oswald and the Communists, was not bought."

Torbitt argues that a Swiss Corporation named Permindex engineered the assassination. Also involved included Defense Industrial Security Command, organized by J. Edgar Hoover and William Sullivan. Torbitt claims that DISC agents included Clay Shaw, Guy Banister, David Ferrie, Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby with Louis M. Bloomfield of Montreal, Canada in charge.

According to the author Permindex was comprised of:

(1) Solidarists, an Eastern European exile organization.

(2) American Council of Christian Churches led by Haroldson L. Hunt.

(3) Free Cuba Committee headed by Carlos Prio Socarras.

(4) The Syndicate headed by Clifford Jones, ex-lieutenant governor of Nevada. This group also included Bobby Baker, George Smathers, Roy Cohn, Fred Black and Lewis McWillie.

(5) Security Division of NASA headed by Wernher von Braun.

According to Torbitt, others involved in the assassination included Lyndon Johnson, Walter Jenkins, Fred Korth, John Connolly, William Seymour, Robert McKeown, Sergio Arcacha Smith, Lee Harvey Oswald, Ruth Paine, Micael Paine, Gordon Novel, and Clint Murchison. For example, he claims that Seymour impersonated Oswald in the School Book Depository and killed J. D. Tippit.

Torbitt adds that the "anti-Castro Cuban part of the plan was to tie the Castro regime into the murder of Kennedy and thus to have the U. S. military give all service to the overthrow of Castro".

In his book Who Shot JFK? (2002) Robin Ramsay argues that Nomenclature of an Assassination Cabal was an attempt by the Central Intelligence Agency to link the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. "Torbitt took Garrison's inquiry into the ClA's links to the assassination and converted them into a story about the FBI's responsibility for the assassination. (This, in my view, tells us that the author/s of Torbitt were working for the CIA, trying to diminish the 'Garrison effect.')"

Torbitt also argues that J. Edgar Hoover and Louis M. Bloomfield planned the execution of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. He names Albert Osborne as the man who organized these two assassinations.

What do members think of Torbitt's book?

You can read the full manuscript here:

http://www.parascope.com/articles/1196/torbitt.htm

Could not find the book in this link but found another version online.

"L.M. Bloomfield, a lawyer of Montreal, Canada and a long time friend and confidant of J. Edgar Hoover, has been Hoover's contract supervisor of Division Five since his days in the OSS before World War II. Bloomfield held one-half of the shares of Permindex and was in total command of its operation in Europe and Africa as well as the North and South American continents. He was the co-ordinator of all activities responsible only to Hoover and Johnson in carrying out the plans for John Kennedy's assassination.34"

The above quote from Torbitt's book is false. It states that he held one half of the shares of Permindex. Bloomfield's role with Permindex was to act as a representative of some of Permindex's shareholders. The letter below, which I found in the Bloomfield collection at Library and Archives Canada descries his role.Bloomfield.pdf.

There is another document that can be found in the Library and Archives Canad Lawsuit thread. The document is from Michele Metta's CMC document collection. It is written in Italian and I translated both documents which state that Bloomfield holds shares as a proxy. A proxy is someone who  acts on someone else's behalf. Metta's CMC document corroborates Bloomfield's letter that he is representing some shareholders and does not have an ownership interest in either Permindex or CMC.

Is there a list of speakers?

21 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Actually there should be since I think Max Good taped it.  

There were about 6 good speeches given in addition to this. 

Found the one of you speaking on vimeo.

Are there any other videos from the March 2018 conference?

On 12/29/2018 at 8:27 PM, James DiEugenio said:

Unfortunately Rob, the best book I know of was in Italian.

 

It was by Roberto Faenza and Marco Fini and it was called Gli Americani in Italia published n 1976.

NATO's secret armies: operation Gladio and terrorism in Western Europe by Ganser, Daniele.

On 1/4/2019 at 10:27 AM, Denny Zartman said:

This is a good question. I agree, 2067 is absurd. I wonder if anyone holding these papers will go on record as explaining the reasoning behind restricting these interviews. 

Do not ask the front desk at an archive ask an archivist. An archivist can tell you if the restriction was imposed by the donor. If the donor imposed it then there is probably very little that can be done about it. If it was not imposed by the donor then you may be able to do something about it. My fight with Library and Archives Canada was won because the archives had imposed a restriction that was not imposed by the donor.

On 12/1/2018 at 9:04 AM, Paz Marverde said:

I am literally fed up with this situation.

Here are 2 CMC papers showing Bloomfield. They show how Bloomfield was shareholder, for an astonishing amount of money, of CMC shares. So, I do really recommend Kowalski to STOP his childish tentative to smear Metta's work, or I will publish here the very interesting content of some emails where he recognizes he treated Metta in a disrespectful way, and apologizes for this. How did you say, Paul Brancato?? Facts are facts? Here are some facts. Enough is enough. By the way: thanks God, there is no "Directory of Directors" content saying the Earth is flat, or we would have Kowalski crying here that Earth is not a globe ...

Translated both documents and both use the word "proxy" in reference to Bloomfield. Proxy means acting for someone else. Bloomfield did not own any shares in either Permindex or CMC, he was acting on behalf of certain shareholders, whose names are unknown.

On 12/19/2018 at 10:40 AM, John Kowalski said:

Yesterday I went to the archive's lawyers office to get copies of Bloomfield's documents. Received 2 CDs containing more than 2,000 documents that the archives previously refused to release to me. They only held back 92 documents because they are deemed to be protected by solicitor client privilege.

The archives provided me with a document called a "privilege log", which is a list of names of people to whom letters are addressed to, none of the names on this list are important.

Have also asked the archives to update their restrictions on access to the Bloomfield collection so other researchers will be able to access them. After this issue is settled, I will probably settle the case. 

 

The archives have confirmed that they are going to update their access restrictions for the Bloomfield collection by January 11. At that time all researchers will be able to access all of the documents, except for the 92 that they are subject to privilege. Will visit the archives in January 2019 to review the Bloomfield collection to ensure they gave me all of the files. After that I will have one last teleconference where I will close the case.

18 minutes ago, Robert Harper said:

Thank you for your work and updates. 

Your welcome.

Yesterday I went to the archive's lawyers office to get copies of Bloomfield's documents. Received 2 CDs containing more than 2,000 documents that the archives previously refused to release to me. They only held back 92 documents because they are deemed to be protected by solicitor client privilege.

The archives provided me with a document called a "privilege log", which is a list of names of people to whom letters are addressed to, none of the names on this list are important.

Have also asked the archives to update their restrictions on access to the Bloomfield collection so other researchers will be able to access them. After this issue is settled, I will probably settle the case.

Who prepared the statement?